After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

All told, Columbia's 57 serials are a pretty shoddy lot. The Spider's Web is just about as good as they ever got, so you can imagine what the rest are like. Columbia's aim seems to have been to produce serials as cheaply as possible. Notice how the limited production quality even of this one has fallen off in Hull's next effort, Columbia serial number 7, Mandrake the Magician, whilst number 11, Deadwood Dick, stars no less a person than Don Douglas, an actor of no significance whatever, who limns even his fleeting role here with such a total lack of charisma it's hard to remember him at all - at least outside the credit titles. Standing sets are pressed into service, whether suitable for the action or not; all the cliffhangers in this one, with the sole exception of a fade-out with the hero's accomplices trapped in a flooding room (and even this is undermined by inept staging), are really tame; the accent is on dialogue rather than action (and such dialogue it is, written by true Hollywood hacks); the direction, aside from a few touches which we'll discuss in a moment, is self-consciously dull in the studio scenes, whilst the outdoor action is almost invariably marred by an obvious lack of money for decent stuntwork and special effects. Overall, the film has a woebegone, shoestring look about it. Columbia's serials are the impoverished cousins of the all-action Republic and ultra-glossy Universal product. Nonetheless, whether by happy accident (maybe the producer was scrounging around Columbia's costume department and found a dozen Franciscan robes left behind from some forgotten religious epic) or design, there are some things in The Spider's Web which make most episodes reasonably entertaining. Except the final episode, that is. An economy chapter if ever there was one, with perhaps the tamest hero-villain confrontation and climactic unmasking on record. In no particular order these spurts to enjoyment are: the bizarrely costumed Octopus himself, all in white mind you, with a crippled leg and artificial hand to boot. No less than three actors supply his voice. The first is very effective indeed, putting all the usual villainous megalomania across with wonderful relish and even credibility. I suspect the same actor supplied the voice of Blinky McQuade, another agreeably grotesque figure. The heavy's robed lieutenants are another fascinatingly gothic touch. (Of course, why they indulge in all this rigmarole is never explained. But we like it). It must be admitted too that there's a certain amount of suspense in the script, even though the scriptwriters handicap themselves by treating the maniac's identity in a remarkably perfunctory fashion. The question isn't even raised till Chapter 8 and is then off the agenda till 12. In the main the writers create tension by pitting the hero against both the villains and the police and showing how he ingeniously outwits both. The conflict is deepened by making the heavies unusually vicious by serial standards, and the police reasonably alert and sympathetic. Another nice if minor touch is that the heroine actually gets to wear a few different costumes. Miss Meredith is certainly the most interesting of the goodies. Of the villains, Marc Lawrence makes the most impression, though Dick Curtis stands out in his one brief scene. Stoloff's music score is okay and occasionally even adds to the suspense, but finally it is the photography that I wish to commend. Generally the lighting is dull and flat, but sometimes Siegler is given his head, resulting in some really effective visuals, particularly of the Octopus and his henchmen strikingly outlined in the noirish gloom of their underworld.

This serial is as action packed a serial you will ever find from start to finish with wonderful performances all around especially Warren Hull who essays three roles brilliantly. Add Keene Duncan's turn as Ram Singh one has a hall of fame serial. The music adds to the excitement. The Octopus is a masked villain set on destruction and Richard Wentworth sceretly The Spider and Blinky McQuade leads a loyal group in an effort to stop him. For 15 pulse pounding episodes The forces of evil are attacked by a hero who shoots first and asks questions later, The Spider.I hope one day Sony sees fit to release this serial because it matches Republic's best. It was ranked by The Serial Squadron 10th best out of 266 sound serials.

To truly understand and appreciate this serial, you'll have to be familiar w/ the Spider's pulp history. Action is plentiful, from intense shootouts, to realistic fistfights, to dramatic car chases, this serial has it all. The storyline/plot was brilliantly written and easy to follow. Warren Hull portrays the Spider as if he was in the pulp magazines. He was fearless, as both Richard Wentworth and the Spider, when confronting the enemy, especially during shootouts, where he would stand wide open as an easy target and using his double colt automatics. That I found true to the character, for he was not a stable man. This serial is on par w/ Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" and most of John Woo's movies. There are scenes, where it seems that there is a rope waiting for the Spider to climb on or swing on from every building, that is not a coincidence, for in the pulp magazines, the Spider does carry a (thin) rope w/ him for those purposes. My only disappointment, is w/ Columbia Pictures low quality visuals, and brutal editing jobs. (i.e. The Spider cold-bloodedly gunned down two men, as they were waking up from a beating-Chapter 5. The Spider's Hindu Mercenary friend, throwing a knife at an intruder-Chapter 14). You will see the intent of the actions, but not the following, only the end result is shown. Just use your imagination for those scenes, otherwise, this is a great serial. The Spider's webbed mask and cape, was the inspiration for the creation of the Amazing Spiderman, by comic books Great, Stan Lee. For more info on the Spider, I recommend Tim Truman's graphic adaption, "The Spider: Master of Men" Chapters 1-6, from Eclipse Books(1991-1992).

This is an early serialized movie series. I only watched parts 1-5, but I feel sorry for a movie that, in all probability, no one has seen, much less commented on.Apparently the best part of this movie is the getaway car, because my roommate would occasionally look up while I was watching this and next to, ÒAre you actually going to watch that all the way through?Ó her most common comment was, ÒWhat a cool car.Ó The car has an external step, so in getaways the crooks can jump on and keep shooting. They do this fairly often, and they also laugh maniacally, and leave loose ends in their evil plans for the Spider to pick up on. If the Spider needs a rope to swing from there is a rope there, as happens when he foils the bank heist. This is comic book style action for the twelve year old market of viewers, who now wonÕt be interested because the film is in black and white.The other cool thing is that the Octopus has a fake arm to make people feel that they know what he is doing, while he keeps a gun trained on them. His evil minions dress like klansmen, not so much to make them look evil as because this was a cheap costume. The Spider wears a black over sized sock with holes cut in it, and a silver painted spider web on it.If you do come across this my advice is not to bother watching it. Instead read a comic book. This should have a similar feel to the movie only portable.